Mind Games

The Ather

The Ather is a world that overlaps or is overlapped by our own. It is sometimes refereed to as The Astral Plane, Spirit World or Shadow Realm. What ever the name may happen to be it all refers to the same place. In context to this world our own world is sometimes refereed to the Material Plane, or Land of Light.

Terrain and Atmosphere

The Ather is a world very similar to our own and is directly effected by what happens in our world. Where nature grows in our world it also grows in the Ather, and even in places like our Tundra and deserts life grows, though less than other places, in the Ather. However, where we have paved roads or constructed cities the Ather is left bare and desert-like.
Likewise the atmosphere of the Ather is similar to the state it in in our world, but is much more noticeable. For instance in the real world a field of flowers grows, in the Ather the air is fresh and clean as well fresher and cleaner than the real world, though, perhaps not as noticeable to the senses, but, if you traveled to a city in the real world the air is polluted and one may not notice such a change after a short time. In the Ather the air in its respective location is also polluted, though much more heavily so. There is very little light available in the Ather as it seems to shift between a state of dusk and dawn.

Ather Flora and Furna

Plant life in the Ather is in some ways similar to the plant life in the Material, grass covers the majority of the soil, shrubs, flowers and trees grow in groups and sea-weed grows under the surface of the water. The difference between ours and theirs is the color, texture and smell. The colors of the Ather counterparts are much darker though not just in color alone, the plan life seems to take in light and trap it. The texture of most plants is smooth, and almost glass-like and there seems to be no scent from the Ather plants at all, instead it is masked by the smells of the real world.

The animals found in the Ather are even stranger than the plants. The majority of creatures in the Ather seem to be tied to a sentient, psionic human from the real world. This is only really noticeable by those with Aura Viewing abilities, who will see that the aura of a beast matches identically with a persons. The Ather beast seems aware of their human counter-part and will stay in close proximity with them. These creatures, even among those who could be deemed the same species, are wildly diverse, but can be associated with a real world animal.
Ather beasts all share some similar qualities however, for instance, all are without eyes though they seem capable of seeing, and all are well equipped to battle; claws, fangs and stingers, and many have thick hide or carapace, however it is very rare when these creatures actually conflict with each other.
For food they seem to feed off of the ambient psionic energy of their human counter-part. Some are also herbavors, eating the plant-life that grows around them as well. Others hunt and eat the other creatures that do not appear to be attached to a human counter-part. These creatures without counter-parts generally only grow to the size of a large dog and tend to travel in packs, like wolves, while those with human counter-parts grow larger, usually the size of a horse or bear, while some larger still. The size of a creature seems directly related to the Psionic Energy Level of their human counter-part.

Aura Viewing and Ather Beast Creation

Aura Beasts are as diverse as the humans who they assosiate with. Each one is different from the last. Because of this all aura beasts start with 7 mutation points and 4 mutation drawback points. Aura beasts can be anywhere from the size of a dog to the size of a bear, the amount of points in the creatures STR and CON should determine the creatures size and should be discussed with the GM.

Because all beasts have no eyes they instead see with the use of Sensitivity. The ability is not always active, and as a result aura beasts recieve a + 3 on all Perception – Awareness checks, however they also get a -2 on Perception – Intuition checks.
All beasts also have the ability Mind Drain, which allows them to siphon psionic energy points from others. Unlike normal use of Mind Drain, where the opponent must be caught off guard, the aura beast can perform the skill check at any time and can do so from as far as 3 meters away from a target. Aura beasts have a psi-pool equal to their INT + WIL / 2 + Level.

Creating an aura beast is the same as creating a player character the differences are;
- 50 Attribute Points
- No Profession is taken
- Because they have no profession aura beasts do not receive a skill point cost reduction
- Many skills can not be purchased by aura beasts; No Intelligence based skills, Armor operation, Throw, Melee Weapons (Except Brawl) Driving, Ranged Weapons, Street Wise, and Personality based skills.
- Racial minimum for all stats is 3, maximum for all stats is 18